Basic&advance Strategy FAQ on Undeads

*note: undead is my main race
http://www.battle.net/war3/images/undead/buildings/expansion-undead-techtree.gif
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Basics
http://www.battle.net/war3/images/undead/screens/test-thumb.gif Undead Resource Gathering
The Undead harvest resources with two units: Acolytes mine gold, and
Ghouls harvest lumber. In order to mine gold, Acolytes must first
summon a Haunted Gold Mine over an existing mine. Then, up to five
Acolytes may gather around the Haunted Gold Mine and begin adding gold
to your reserves, without having to carry it back to the Necropolis.
Ghouls will deposit lumber at your Necropolis or Graveyard. Ghouls
carry 20 Lumber without having to research any upgrades which is more
than any other starting workers. Scouting
Rush to create a Shade and place it in the enemy town. Newbie players
don't even know what a Shade is, let alone how to stop one. Make
comments about the enemy town such as "hey you built that building
wrong" and "oh you're building those units." It will drive the enemy
crazy but of course will give you away to players in the know. This
will be very effective early in Warcraft III play and less effective as
players learn how to play =) Blight
Most Undead buildings must be summoned on the Blight, a corrupting
influence that turns the land under an Undead settlement to rotted
soil. Only two buildings can be summoned on normal land: the Necropolis
and a Haunted Gold Mine. Once completed, these buildings generate a
radius of Blight, upon which subsequent Undead buildings can be
summoned. Each additional building you summon extends the radius of
Blight further. The Necropolis makes far more Blight than other Undead
buildings. Other races can build buildings over the Blight. The
Sacrificial Skull item, available at the Tomb of Relics, can be used to
generate a small radius of Blight. It is useful to fast expand (and
protect your expansion). Blight can be dispelled by your enemies once
the building that generated it has been destroyed or unsummoned. Blight
Regeneration
An Undead unit will regenerate its health faster when it is standing
on, or hovering over Blight. The standard (non Hero) Undead units only
regenerate while on the Blight. Off the Blight they do not regenerate
either in the day time or at night. However, certain units such as the
Death Knight and Obsidian statue can allow Undead units to regenerate
health.

http://www.battle.net/war3/images/undead/screens/ss007.gif

TillerMaN heals his Undead Units after a battle.

Expansion Towns
It's best to first Haunt a Gold Mine followed by immediately summoning
in a Necropolis next to your expansion. You cannot use Town Portal
Scrolls to teleport to Haunted Gold Mines. Halls of the Dead/Black
Citadels act as a great tower with a lot of hit points and you can use
Town Portal Scrolls to teleport to them. While you don't need a
Necropolis at a new town to mine Gold, the benefits of building one are
great. You can also use the Necropolis to summon in the 4 additional
Acolytes you need to harvest Gold rather than trying to summon them in
at your main base and walking them across the map, generally one by
one. Remember, you don't need a Necropolis to mine extra Gold Mines (it
just helps for Teleports) so just send a few Acolytes over and summon a
Haunted Gold Mine. Surround the Haunted Gold Mine with Ziggurats and
then upgrade them to Spirit Towers. This provides both food and
protection.

http://www.battle.net/war3/images/undead/screens/ss009.gif

An Undead player's expansion. Two Spirit Towers protect the expansion and the Undead army can teleport to defend it because of the Necropolis.

Building
Acolytes do not need to maintain buildings under construction.
Buildings will continue construction on their own (like Protoss) so
start a building summoning then move the Acolyte to another task.
Graveyards
Graveyards produce corpses which can be loaded into Meat Wagons or can
be used by Necromancers to create Skeletons. Graveyards produce a Ghoul
corpse every 15 seconds. The Graveyard can generate up to 5 corpses in
a 25 game unit radius. Building Placement
Ziggurats are also "towers" so place them around your town in defensive
formations rather than lining them up like typical farms. Then when you
need to create a Spirit Tower the Ziggurats are already in place.
Acolytes can repair Ziggurats during battle so keep them near. It's
best to wall in the buildings whenever possible with other buildings.
Place other buildings around the Ziggurats so that there is less room
around the building for Melee users to attack. Ziggurat Upgrade Trick
When the enemy comes into your town start upgrading a few Ziggurats to
make the enemy want to attack them. They typically will either run or
start to attack them. Then cancel the upgrades when they leave or right
before the Ziggurat is destroyed. Nerubian Towers/Spirit Towers
One Nerubian Tower is an excellent defense against early rushes.
Typically enemy players will run after being hit by a Nerubian Tower a
few times (especially Heroes). Many advanced Undead players will not
upgrade their Ziggurats to Spirit Towers unless they know someone is
about to attack their town. That saves resources. If no one is going to
be attacking your town, Spirit Towers will be wasted. In that case it
is better to spend money on units.

http://www.battle.net/war3/images/undead/screens/ss006.gif	http://www.battle.net/war3/images/undead/screens/ss010.gif
This setup will save the Acolytes from an early rush.	The town is built in such a way that it's difficult to reach the Acolytes on Gold.

Hero Rush
If your town is Hero Rushed early in the game use your Dread Lord to
Sleep the enemy Hero, or use your Death Knight to use Death Coil to
heal your Acolytes. If the enemy attempts to attack your Acolytes run
them away. Use Death Coil to heal them. If the enemy attempts to kill
your Haunted Gold Mine, have the Acolytes come back and repair it or
drive the enemy away. Necromancers
Necromancers are very powerful and useful. Bring them along to create
Skeletons out of corpses. Make sure you research Adept and Master
Training as well as Skeletal Longevity and Skeletal Mastery. Meat Wagon
and Necromancers Combo
Gather a group of Meat Wagons and Necromancers. Research Exhume
Corpses. When you're ready to assault an enemy town bring the Meat
Wagons and Necromancers to the enemy town. The corpses from the Meat
Wagons will give the Necromancers plenty of corpses to raise. Obsidian
Statues
Bring these guys with your army to heal or generate mana. Most Undead
players work this into their strategy. They are also useful later on as
Destroyers. "Statues" are very effective in team games so they should
be bought on a regular basis. Dark Ranger/Pit Lord
The Dark Ranger and Pit Lord are great Hero choices for the Undead
because they are also Undead and can be healed by the Death Knight's
Death Coil ability. Items
Use Rods of Necromancy early in the game. Vs. Night Elves
<blockquote>-Demon Hunter - Use Sleep on
him. Surround and kill. -1 Ghoul Rush. Undead players start with a
Ghoul. If you know exactly where the enemy Night Elf player is you can
send that 1 Ghoul to hit them. They won't even have a Hero or possibly
even an Altar yet. This can put you very far behind so don't use it
unless you know what you're doing. -Keeper of the Grove Entangle Rush -
Use a Dreadlord to Sleep the Keeper or use the Death Knight's Death
Coil to heal any of the units the Keeper hits with Entangling Roots.
This can allow you to receive no damage done by the Keeper of the
Grove's rush. -Huntresses - Use Sleep and Abominations. Necromancer's
Cripple can also work well. Ghouls can even work with dual Auras and
Frenzy if you have enough of them.
</blockquote>Vs. Undead
<blockquote>-Mass Skeleton - Destroyer's Devour Magic will be perfect to remove all those summoned units </blockquote>============================================================================

Advanced
Undead Fast Expand!
Undead players like to get early expansions. While they don't have it
as easy as the Humans or Night Elves, they can still do it. Bring a
Sacrificial Skull and summon in some Spirit Towers.

http://www.battle.net/war3/images/undead/screens/ss008.gif

In this funny screenshot, an Undead player is fighting the Creeps while expanding at the same time! You can see the Gnoll behind the Haunted Gold Mine as the Dread Lord is fighting him. The player put down some Blight using a Sacrificial Skull so that he could summon in Spirit Towers very quickly.

heros

Heroes:

Death Knight: Usually the best choice when facing Night Elf and Human.
A good all around hero for harassing as well as creeping. Death Coil is
his bread and butter ability, acting as a healing spell, hero nuke and
his best way to harass. Unholy Aura boosts your entire army with
increased healing and speed to get around, which is always useful.
Death Pact is probably the most underused skill, mainly for the fact
that the DK needs his other abilities a bit more rather than
sacrificing a unit for health. Finally, Animate Dead which is a
interesting ultimate that is underused. Basically, you want to go
Coil/Aura/Coil/Aura/Coil/Animate Dead or Aura/Animate Dead or
Aura/Pact/Pact/Pact.

Dreadlord: A hero you probably saw a whole lot more in Reign of Chaos.
Nowadays you find him mostly used against the Warden and sometimes Orc.
Also a good choice in UD mirror for a third hero when massing Gargs.
First skill is Sleep, a basic disable that is useful when surrounding
units and heroes, as well as putting them out of battle. Vampiric Aura
is great for getting that extra edge you need when using melee units
(Ghouls, Gargs, Aboms). Carrion Swarm is a cone-shaped AoE nuke that
works well against units in a line. His ultimate, Inferno summons an
Infernal that does massive chaos damage, sports a magic-immunity and a
whole load of health, not to mention his impact damage/stun as well as
permanent Immolation. Probably one of the best ultimates in the game,
if you get a level 6 Dreadlord then this could decide whether you win
or lose. The Dreadlord unfortunately does not have the mana-capacity to
go Sleep/Swarm without holding a mana potion, so find yourself picking
Sleep or Swarm along with Vampiric Aura.

Lich: This is a hero you'll see very often used first in Undead mirror,
and used second in almost all other matchups. Frost Nova is a great AoE
spell and Hero nuke that does great damage and slows the targets
affected. Dark Ritual is best used with a Rod of Necromancy to provide
the Lich with more Novas. Frost Armor is a very situational spell that
causes distractions from the Lich's main goal: Frost Nova. Death and
Decay is also an interesting spell, that destroys trees and does
percentage damage over time, a more situational ultimate. Find yourself
picking Nova/Ritual most of the time, though some swear by a level of
Frost Armor in between Novas sometimes.

Crypt Lord: The new hero to TFT, used mainly as a 3rd hero, but a good
starter when matched against Orc. Carrion Beetles is the spell you want
if you go Crypt Lord first. Pop those beetles out straight from
corpses, cause they have no timer on them and work great when massed.
Impale is an AoE stun with a bit of damage that goes in a line shape,
the spell to pick when using the CL as a 3rd hero. Spiked Carapace is a
defensive mechanism for the CL that reflects damage and adds armor. His
ultimate, Locust Swarm is one you probably won't find yourself using
very often. Good spell when your DK has no mana or you need to do
damage fast. The CL is usually seen picking Beetle/Carapace or
Impale/Carapace, but Beetle/Impale is seeing a bit more light as well

Items

At your convenient Tomb of Relics, there are 8 items that you can purchase depending on what Tier you have reached.

Rod of Necromancy: This thing creates 2 Skeletal Warriors that are on a
timer from any corpse. This means the corpses generated from your
Graveyard, creep corpses, or even those Sheeps that you find walking
around. You'll find yourself buying this item almost all the time since
it works as a Mana Potion for the Lich, as well as a valuable
creeping/harassing tool.

Dust of Appearance: Click it and it coats units around your hero with
Appearance Dust, rendering them visible when invisible for a certain
amount of time. Great against that pesky Blademaster as well as hiding
Archers.

Sacrificial Skull: Summons blight around a large area, meaning use it
on suicide hall attacks as well as expanding with towers early on. Also
useful for towering, but you probably won't be doing that.

Potion of Healing: Heals heroes for 250 HP, memorize the hotkey or
placement of this item on the shop. Sometimes when your hero is being
chased at low health you have to pop this baby quick.

Potion of Mana: Heals heroes for 250 Mana, use only when necessary.
You'll find that Statues are much more effective for the cost.

Scroll of Town Portal: I'm sure you know what this does, but try to
keep one on you at all times so you can defend quickly and efficiently.
Also, learn how to aim your TPs to gain advantages over the enemy. If
you double click it just TPs you to the bottom-right of your Necropolis.

Orb of Corruption: Adds 5 bonus damage to the attack of a Hero when
carried. The Hero's attacks also become ranged when attacking air and
reduce the armor (by 5) of enemy units for 5 seconds. Cannot be
dispelled.
Best used on Dreadlord or Lich since they will be attacking units much
more often. Absolutely rips through everything, you want this nearly
every game. Also good for when you have a solo DK but are facing air.

Scroll of Healing: Heals 150 HP to units in an area. These are great
when using large amounts of Ghouls because they defend you from mass
AoE. If you're lingering around 80 food with a bunch of gold, don't be
afraid to pack these because they can determine the outcome of a battle.

Strategies

UD vs. HU

There are a 3 main options in this match. The first one is to DK harass
with a Rod while doing hit and runs on his Peasant line or Creepjack as
much as you can. Basically, all you want to do is harass the crap out
of the Human until you finally reach Tier 3. At Tier 2 play it safe and
add a Lich to your DK, it'll help with AoE. At this point add 2 Statues
for healing and keep on pumping Ghouls. Tier 3, you want to add a Crypt
Lord, buy an Orb of Corruption for the Lich and continue your delay
until you get Destroyers and Aboms, the 2 units you'll find yourself
using the most in late game.

As for him, he'll probably be setting up a Riflecaster force to push
hard at Tier 2. This is the most impacting battle in the game, because
it is very hard to defend against. He'll probably have an
AM/MK/Footies/Riflecaster while you're defending with
DK/Lich/Ghouls/Statues. You're going to need towers if he does come in
to your base, but your main goal is to pick off as many units as you
can without hurting yourself too much. If you can get past this and
reach Tier 3, the game starts getting a lot easier because Destroyers
rip through Casters and Aboms eat Riflemen alive. Watch out for
Gryphons and Paladin at this point.

The second option is to go for a suicide Lich/Ghoul rush. This is one
of those do-or-die things. Basically, you throw up 2 Crypts and pump
Ghouls as hard as you can without teching. Once your Lich comes out,
sell your TP (or keep it, if you fail the rush it's going to be hard to
recover anyway) buy a Rod and bring as many Ghouls as you can. Hit his
Peasants hard, Nova + Ghouls + Skeletons can rip them up if he's not
defending too well. Once you hit level 2 start using Dark Ritual on
Skeletons or Ghouls that are about to die to keep your Lich Nova-happy.
Send all low HP Ghouls back home and reinforce yourself with high HP
Ghouls. If you failed and lost a lot of Ghouls or lost your Lich, then
you'll have to fight really hard to win because at Tier 2, his push
will be really hard to beat.

The third option is Crypt Fiends. Usually accompanied by a Beastmaster
(MaDFroG style) or DK in this matchup, you'll find yourself trying to
creep as much as you can as fast as you can. You can actually fight
battles in this situation unless you find yourself against a LOT of
Defend footmen. At Tier 2 the Human will probably get Breakers and
Casters, which is where you need to play as defensive as possible. Get
2 Statues and go straight to Tier 3 where you will add Destroyers, a
Crypt Lord or Naga and Aboms. However, if you scout and see that he is
low on units and that your army can defeat his, then put up another
Crypt and break 50 food. DK/Lich or Beastmaster/Naga as well as
Fiends/Stats can lead to a quick win.


UD vs. Orc

The lifelong discussion in this matchup is whether to go Ghouls or
Fiends. Basically, Ghouls means that you will be harassing most of the
game trying to make sure the Farseer does not get too many levels so
that later on you don't get owned in Chainwave. Fiends means that you
need to creep as fast as possible while avoiding direct confrontation
with the Orc as much as possible. You can't afford to fight against
Speed Scrolled Grunts.

Using Ghouls, find yourself resurrecting the Death Knight from the dead
early on. He's an excellent way to steal creep kills early on as well
as provide healing and mobility for your Ghouls. Pick up a Rod of
Necromancy and try to tech to Tier 3 as quick as you can. Bring along a
few Ghouls after your tech and creepjack as much as possible but avoid
actually fighting him, as Chain Lightning rips through Ghouls. Once
Tier 2 comes, he'll most likely go Wind Riders. There are two options
you have and they are going for Destroyers really quickly, or a mix of
Fiends and Ghouls. Since you started with Ghouls, you don't have the
option of straight Fiends because the transition would be really rough.


Fast Destroyers is really hard to do and you're going to need towers if
you want a chance against it, as well as putting up your Slaughterhouse
near the back. Basically, it means the Orc will waltz over to your base
with a FS/TC/Grunts/Wyvern along with maybe a Heal Scroll. This means
you will base camp as much as possible until Tier 3 when you can
research the Destroyer upgrade. The best second hero in this situation
is Lich because the AoE really helps vs. air. In this case you are
going to need armour upgrades to survive against Bats, usually 2 is
enough.

Fiend/Ghoul is a great strat and there is an excellent replay that demonstrates it here.

MYM]Susiria vs/ mouz.benQ.Romeo
http://www.wcreplays.com/replays.php?get=5583

Basically you start off with Ghouls harassing as much as possible. If
he runs away try your best to surround whatever you can. Basically you
go straight for Destroyers, but in Tier 2 you put up a second Crypt and
a delayed Slaughterhouse. This means less Destroyers at Tier 3 but a
stronger Tier 2 army. Research Web and get Fiends out ASAP, delay his
Wyverns. If you find yourself in your base with 2 or 3 Fiends while he
has 5 or 6 Wyvern, put up a Spirit Tower just in case. Dreadlord works
well in this situation because it provides leech for your Ghouls vs.
Chainwave and the ability to sleep the TC.

Going straight Fiends also works, and you have 2 hero choices for this.
Death Knight, which is the standard works well for Fiends because it
provides healing and mobility. Crypt Lord is also a good choice if you
go Beetles/Impale since it provides a great way to creep early on as
well as the ability to fight battles.

http://www.wcreplays.com/replays.php?get=5394

That's a replay from WCR Showmatch featuring rS.PhilBoT vs. 4K.Grubby
where Phil goes for a Beetle/Impale strat adding in a DK second as well
as Stats and eventually moving on to Destroyers. Make sure you know how
to time Burrow, as that is one of the best unit skills in the game.

UD vs...

Against the Nightelves you
have many strategies to use and to counter with. Basically, the Elf
will try to hit you early on and mid-game while stopping you from
levelling your powerful heroes. The best first hero in this matchup is
indeed the Death Knight, who has probably the best spell to creepjack
with as well as sniping low HP Archers and DotTs.

Unfortunately for you, the Elf has many heroes to choose from first.
Beastmaster, Demon Hunter, and Warden are all very popular first heroes
that have high damage output and excellent spells against your army.
The Beastmaster is particularly dangerous because your main form of
Dispel comes at Tier 3 in the form of Destroyers. This means that if
you let your opponent get a high level Beastmaster, you're going to be
rushing for Destroyers. There is absolutely no way you can fight off
that many summons without Dispel. However, if he chooses Demon Hunter
then he will most likely harass you early game. This is where you must
learn to hide your DK while creeping and use Ghouls to try and surround
the DH. You also have the choice of just mass Coiling the DH, sending
it over to heal up in Moon Wells while you creep. Finally, the Warden
is a great harasser and has some very powerful AoE against Ghouls and
Gargoyles. You have to avoid head on fights unless you are certain you
can nuke the Warden to hell, or unless you have a huge amount of heal
scrolls. Second heroes are usually Panda, Firelord or KotG. The Panda
has been nerfed a bit and is a high-hp AoE spewing hero. Meaning you
need mass Heal Scrolls, or Abom/Destroyers to fight against this guy.
KotG is useless since all his spells are negated by Destroyers, just
nuke him. Firelord works like a Beastmaster but is much more fragile.
It boasts potentially dangerous summons that you should try and
kill/Dispel first.

Basically, the best strategy against Night Elf is Ghoul/Garg ->
Abom/Destroyer. It gives you a high edge on Archers early on and a
great harassing unit, the Gargoyle. The main thing you have to remember
against Elf is not to fight head on. Early on, you can use Ghouls vs.
Archers but against Hunts you'll find yourself suffering. A dual Crypt
Ghoul rush works really well in some cases when the enemy only went
Archers. AoE and Summons are way too dangerous in most cases unless you
have Heal Scrolls or Tier 3. At Tier 2, pump Gargs from 2 Crypts and
decide on whether or not you will get yourself a Lich. Solo DK works
well vs. NE because level 3 Coil is really dangerous to Archers and
DotTs. Watch a few MaDFroG/CantChat. replays and watch how he uses
Gargs because they are probably your best chance in living the Tier 2
push.

Fiends also work well but you have to watch for Faerie Fire. If
possible, get 2 Destroyers along with your Fiend/Statues so that you
can eat up Faerie Fire. Watch Philbot replays if you'd like to know how
to use Fiends in this matchup.

Destroyers/Aboms/Orb of Corruption come at Tier 3 and they are what you
need to actually be able to fight head on battles without 2 Heal
Scrolls and 800 mana worth of Nukes. Grab a Cryptlord or Lich if you
want at this stage because that extra AoE really helps against DotTs
and Archers. Finally, just remember that if you made it this far
through delaying and harassing, then chances are the Elf is completely
frustrated and vulnerable. Harass, delay, prevent expansions.


UD vs. UD

Once again, the age old question of Ghouls vs. Fiends comes up once
more. Basically, Ghouls do better early on for harassing and picking
off Acos while Fiends will give you the stronger army during Tier 2. In
most cases, player pick Ghouls and these battles lead to low HP micro
wars as well as EXP denial wars. With Fiends however, players try to
creep as much as possible (most likely with CL) and gain a level
advantage while fending off an early rush as best as possible. There
are pros and cons to both strategies, so let me give you a breakdown.

Ghouls + Lich is the basic strategy for most UD vs. UD matchups, I'll
go over what to do when you have an absolute mirror match (Ghouls vs.
Ghouls) Basically you want to try and pick off his Acos during his tech
to Tier 2, or just fight a battle if you believe your micro is better.
Your main goal however, is to make sure your Lich is higher level than
his. If you're 3 and he's 2, you will most likely win any battle simply
because the game is revolved around the Lich. Ritual units that you
know will die, or use your Lich to pick them off. This results in no
EXP for the enemy which is crucial in the "race to 3". At Tier 2,
switch over to Double Crypt Gargoyles so you can keep a good advantage
over Destroyers and Ghouls. He'll most likely do so as well (since the
switch over to Fiends at this point is really hard given the amount of
Gargs being pumped) and once again you are going to need Frost Nova as
it is your best buddy. If you find yourself with a lower level Lich,
you may need to pack Heal Scrolls. Just remember your early game is the
deciding factor. Against Fiend users just continue to pump Ghouls and
push your early armour advantage as much as you can. Pick off Acos
during tech, maintain a good advantage. If he doesn't switch from
Fiends just keep pumping Ghouls and go for Frenzy early while adding
Destroyers.

In Fiend vs. Fiend with CL, your goal is to creep faster. Expansions
are also possible but limit it to Tier 2 since you want to get a DK and
Statues as fast as you can. The thing about mirror matches is that both
people have the same mindset in most cases, meaning whoever slips up
first will lose. Scout often, figure out the best time to attack. If
you have a bigger army, consider putting up an expansion while camping
outside his base. Map control plays a huge factor, especially since you
both have the same cards to play. General heroes to use are CL -> DK
-> Lich or Dreadlord. Against Ghouls just defend as best as you can,
since he does have the early game advantage. Set up towers if you need
to, just whatever you need until you can hit him with higher hero levels

maps

Echo Isles: This map is
great for Ghoul users because of how easy it is to harass and creep at
the same time. There's a Health Fountain that can be easily crept right
under you (great when using Ghouls to creep while your DK harasses) and
a Mana Fountain in the middle if you find yourself using a lot of hero
nukes (what UD doesn't =P). I'd say Ghouls do have the advantage here
but when fighting battles stick to the middle because the tree patches
can give you some really bad positioning. Pressure, pressure, pressure.

Bandit Ridge: This map's really weird but basically try to get air as
quickly as possible (Gargs vs. NE/UD, Destros vs. HU/Orc) because there
is a little plateau in the middle that is a bit slower for ground
units. There's some nice places to fight with Fiends though
(expansions, tree passages) so don't count them out. But seriously,
Gargs own this map hard.

The Two Rivers: Imbalanced map in terms of spawns, but play it just
like Echo Isles. Harass as much as you can while creeping with Ghouls,
making sure the enemy doesn't expand. If he does, try your best to make
him pay for it and utilise the open area in the middle sections to your
advantage. If you're running Fiends, bridge camping can be a great way
to ensure a victory you'd lose in open space especially against Orc. If
he Speed Scrolls on a bridge, it makes no difference because only about
2 or 3 Grunts can be hitting your Fiends at one time.

Lost Temple: People say this is your typical Human map, but recently it
has been abused by Night Elves because it is so easy to expand. Scout
often and try to prevent expansions while doing hit and runs. There's a
lot of creeps in this map and the middle area is really easy for
DK/Ghoul users. Fiend users can also creep quickly and your best
positions are tight areas such as the inner temple. The downfall of
Fiends is that preventing expansions is a lot harder but you have an
advantage if the player decides on air.

Turtle Rock: This map is really sweet when using Fiends because of how
easy it is to creep as well as the amount of tight spaces. If the enemy
spawns beside you, put up an early Nerubian because it can save many
Acolytes. Elves tend to expand in red spots, so scout those often.
Ghouls creep the green spots easily and have a bit of trouble with the
orange corners, just make sure you watch closely. Humans will most
likely attack your during Tier 2 (which is the start of your Tier 3
tech if you went Ghouls) and it can lead to disaster if you don't play
it right. Try to force a battle in your base with your Nerubian (and
maybe Spirit Tower) hitting things. After the battle send Skeletons to
scout for expansions in the middle corners.

Twisted Meadows: This map is medium to big featuring one of your
favourite units to creep, the Troll Warlord. Find yourself nuking it
simply for the nice items it drops, you may even want to run around
ganking items from the Warlords and ignoring the other creeps.
Unfortunately this map has many areas to expand and if you get bad
positioning it could be a huge disadvantage. Elves sometimes fast
expand, but most races do expansions at Tier 2. Try to prevent this by
attacking with a DK/Lich/Ghouls or DK/Lich/Fiends and nailing down
their expo as it goes up. This map is really nice if you split your
Ghouls/Hero up because of the green and orange (Gnolls only) spots. The
merchants are do-able if you have around 10 Ghouls.

Gnoll Wood: This map is THE map for Gargs for many reasons. Firstly,
the middle fountain has a Dragon that can be crept in seconds if you
have Gargs. Secondly, the air mobility is a huge advantage because of
the amount of trees splitting up the areas of the map. Lastly, the
trees behind spawns can be really nice for harassment. Of course,
you'll probably only find yourself using Gargs vs. NE but if you
suspect Human Air (not likely) then pull those Gargoyles out.
Otherwise, the Merchant camps provide good areas to creep with Ghouls
and the trees can give good cover for Fiends. Destroyers work the same
way as Gargs too =)